The Rise of Middle-Aged Cannabis Use: Why More Professionals Are Swapping Alcohol for Weed

In a column for the Daily Mail, Lucy Cavendish argues that middle-class professionals who spent a rackety youth in London have cashed in, moved to the countryside, and almost entirely ditched cocaine for cannabis.

The Tech TL;DR:

• New research published in the journal Addiction reveals that 1.2 million adults in Britain use cannabis every day.
• The study, conducted by researchers from King’s College London and the University of Bath, indicates that daily use has more than doubled compared to previous estimates.
• Data shows that adults in their 40s and 50s are more than twice as likely to take the class B drug daily as younger adults.

Cavendish writes that she recently attended a Friday night mums’ dinner where a bag of dried marijuana flowers was brought out, a joint was rolled, and it was passed around while everyone chatted as normal. She says that while experts have expressed surprise at the new figures showing 7.2 per cent of adults surveyed had used cannabis in the past year—representing 4 million people when extrapolated—it does not surprise her.

Reflecting on her own past, Cavendish states that she used to smoke a bit of dope in her 20s and 30s when bringing up four small children by themselves in rural Oxfordshire, finding it helpful to relieve tension. However, she stopped after experiencing hangovers that felt like panic attacks and because she did not want her growing children to see or smell the drug.

The column highlights how middle-aged habits have shifted toward cannabis consumption around kitchen islands and in landscaped gardens. One mum friend in her mid-50s told the Daily Mail that she relies on a weed habit for fun rather than drinking alcohol, noting that she texts an old dealer who brings it round on a moped.

Other friends order cannabis via Snapchat, pay on PayPal, and have it delivered in an Uber, according to the essay.

Dr Niall Campbell, addiction consultant and psychiatrist at The Priory Hospital Roehampton, told the Daily Mail that people are smoking far more than they used to because it is much easier to get.

“Most people who used to smoke weed at university or college, let’s say 40 years ago, were smoking something a lot milder,” Campbell told the Daily Mail. “The weed now is much stronger and it has a hugely detrimental effect on your mental, physical and financial health.”

Campbell explains that the tightly curled flower buds known as skunk have been selectively bred indoors over recent decades to increase tetrahydrocannabinol levels. He warns that prolonged use leads to paranoia and can detach individuals from people around them.

“The stress gets worse because people around you find it very difficult to be with you and that of course affects your relationships,” Campbell told the Daily Mail. He adds that individuals in middle age often believe they can manage a cannabis habit until it is too late and they become addicted.

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